


The end of My Fellow Hedonist

by shikadi



Series: My Fellow Hedonist [5]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Jötunheimr | Jotunheim, M/M, Meta, Series, The Nine Realms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-17
Updated: 2018-11-17
Packaged: 2019-08-24 19:33:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16646357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shikadi/pseuds/shikadi
Summary: Four years ago, I abandoned this series, leaving a lot of plot threads unresolved. While I am not going to be able to write out the final part in its entirety, I have here summarised the plot of the final part, so that anyone who is still interested in this series can have some resolution.





	The end of My Fellow Hedonist

I always intended to finish this series. It was my baby for the years I posted it, and I even started the last part before I lost the energy for fanfiction writing and abandoned it. It wasn't even a conscious decision; other writing I was doing, both original and fanfic, was much more engaging for me. But I loved _My Fellow Hedonist._ It was the first time I had ever written anything of any significant length.

I began writing it when I was 14 and stopped updating when I was 16 or so. I usually wrote chapters in less than a day and I never proofread anything, which is probably brutally obvious. I'm incredibly grateful to all the people who read it and liked it because you were amazing at encouraging me to keep writing and keep improving. Today I write original fiction and have won awards and been featured in magazines, and I'm starting the second draft of a full-length horror novel. You guys did this for me.

On to _My Fellow Hedonist's_ ending. I was intending to write one last story, called _The Other Laufeyson_ , but a few chapters in I lost motivation and eventually deleted it.

The plot, which was supposed to tie together a lot of unfinished business from the whole season, was as follows:

At the end of the last Ragnarok, which had mostly been caused by Loki, the Norns (Fates) decided that this iteration of the world needed to be different in order to prevent stagnancy. Since the Norse gods and Loki in particular had been the catalysts for many of the key events in the history of the dying world, they attempted to alter the destiny of these people to produce a different outcome from this Ragnarok cycle.

Thor, Odin, Frigga, and a few other key players such as Sif and the Warriors Three were banished to be humans on Earth. Loki, on the other hand, was cut into two people: his Asgardian self and his Jotun self. The Asgardian half was raised as a human on Earth and the Jotun half was raised in Jotunheim. His parents were also duplicated between the two worlds in order to explain where Loki had come from.

So we have the thousand-year-old Loptr, a bad guy with a good streak, and human Loki, a good guy with a bad streak. The Norns intended that Loki would hold Loptr in check. This was necessary, because Loki's destiny was so powerful that they could not simply banish him to Earth and instead needed to invent this system where Loki existed to hold Loptr back. Neither is capable of killing the other, nor are they capable of anything other than disliking each other, since they are diametrically opposed. Loki has a tiny spark of magic but is a technological genius while Loptr is a brilliant spellcaster. I even went for some slightly heavy-handed imagery where Loki has Extremis and so burns hot while Loptr is ice cold.

This neatly covers why Malekith recognised Loki as being exactly like Loptr in the first part, and why Loki has a gnawing feeling that he has some greater purpose. Loki's emotional outbursts and ability to slot neatly into grand cosmic drama are likewise a symptom of why the Norns created him.

So the Chitauri invasion of Earth, events of Iron Man 3, and select events from other MCU movies still happen in this universe because they are a part of destiny, but they take different forms with different key players.

I like Loptr's character. He's traumatised from the political fuckery necessary for his father to keep the throne, and he's every part of Loki that was razor-edged and vengeful and bitter. He's alive partly out of spite and partly to finally grasp the power that he feels rightly belongs to him. He's also got about a thousand chips off his shoulder because of his small size and reliance on magic over brute force. He has spent most of his life on Muspelheim, married to royalty there, and has returned to Jotunheim on the death of his wife to resume his duties as prince. Both his parents then died mysteriously, putting him in charge.

Eisa and Einmyria, Loptr's daughters, were also included in this. Almost nothing is known about them from the original mythology so I used them as a blank canvas to fit the story. Eisa is the older one, not actually that much younger than Loptr since he had when he was very young, and she is serious and responsible and ends up taking on a lot of domestic responsibilities. Einmyria is a child who has extremely powerful and possibly magical abilities that she can't control well, to the extent of being able to distort reality.

I also enjoyed reworking the Jotnar a little. The Jotnar are largely beefcakes in this universe with no sexual dimorphism at all. Something about people making female Jotun out to be big titty fantasy ladies did not sit right with me. I interpreted their culture my own way too, which I felt free to do since this doesn't technically even take place in the MCU world, it takes place in the world after it. Also, I gave the Jotnar in this voice exceptionally soft voices to match the silence on their world. Not sure why I added that bit; it seemed important at the time.

Jotunheim is split into tribes that each control a major city and have dramatic names like High Crest and Ironwood. In times of need, the tribal leaders come together and elect a leader from their number who is now in charge of the entire Jotnar population. Laufey occupied this position once, but was stripped of it after his failure to invade Midgard. He, or his family, would be able to regain this title if they could recover the Heart of Jotunheim, that frosty box that Loki fucks around with in the first movie. Queen Gullveig of the Vanir is currently in position of this. Regaining the Heart will make a huge difference to welfare and power of the Jotnar; it was removed in the first place to cripple the Jotun's ability to invade other places a millennia ago. Gullveig herself is a powerful sorceress and prophetess who knows more about the Nine Realms than anyone, second only to the Norns themselves.

The final major player in this plot is Malekith the Accursed. He took Loki's place in the Chitauri invasion and his life is deeply entangled with both the fate of the Nine Realms and with Loki and Loptrs' personal histories. He's also the kind of dude that betrays people a lot, which is honestly classic MCU Loki but which doesn't apply very well to this universe's Loki.

So essentially what happens is that Loki and Tony meet Loptr and immediately see the similarities between the two of them. Loptr offers them hospitality and they accept, suspicious. The planet of Jotunheim has been under a magical embargo to prevent the Jotun from being aggressive and invading other planets as they did to Asgard and Earth a long time ago. Since Loptr is a scheming bastard, the embargo was made more severe after Loptr returned from Muspelheim.

Loptr himself is well aware of the Loki/Loptr anomaly and has been researching it, but the embargo prevents him from going anywhere to do so. The reason Loki and Tony could teleport to Jotunheim lies in Loki's Lightningrod suit, which utilises a non-magical form of teleportation.

Loptr, ever the schemer, immediately sees that Loki's suit could be his ticket off the planet to put some of his plans into place.

Loki and Loptr have a practice fight, showing that despite the age gap, they're well-matched. Apparently.

Loki and Tony have dinner with the Jotnar and decide they will leave for Vanaheim soon. Later, when Loptr talks to Loki in private, Loptr attacks him and locks him in a prison, stealing the Lightningrod suit and shapeshifting to look like him. Loptr now has the ability to leave his own planet, so long as he can keep his act up around Tony. Malekith is also in on this, because he's really just as loyal to Loptr as he is to Loki. Which is still a limited amount.

Other Jotnar help him keep up the farce until they leave the planet, including Eisa, who shapeshifts into her father. Einmyria reveals to Loki the plan involving stealing the Heart.

Einmyria is twenty-six years old, and it's never really made clear how old that is in human terms, although my intention as the author is that she is around ten. I also intended her to be autistic in a bold display of the superpowered autist trope. I'm actually autistic myself so I can jokingly say that perhaps it was a power fantasy. She has no idea what her father's plan is, unlike Einmyria, and because of her naiveté Loki uses her to escape. Her abilities don't appear to be entirely magical as Loki notes that her teleportation doesn't feel like magic, it feels like the universe moved around them. Since Loki looks just like her father but is more patient and kind, Einmyria immediately latches onto him.

Loki's comeback plan relies on the fact that Eisa clearly resents her father. He thinks he can use Loptr's two kids against him, seeing as one has incredible power and the other is politically influential. He talks to Eisa, who admits that Loptr doesn't pay enough attention to Einmyria to realise that she isn't using magic and that she's a lot more powerful than he thinks. Both sisters agree that they hate Jotunheim for how dull and empty it is and want to go home to Muspelheim. In fact, now that Loptr is gone the pair have no intention of doing many of their official duties and are going to goof off.

Eisa tells Loki more about Loptr, especially about how Loptr was an abandoned child. The Jotnar dump their weak children outside to die, and Laufey did this to Loptr, but Loptr was returned to him by Gullveig's forces. Basically, we now know that Loptr's life is decently intertwined with Gullveig's, and that he truly hates her. Einmyria is disliked by the Jotnar because she should have been abandoned at birth also but Loptr refused.

Loptr and Tony, as well as Malekith who is assisting them, are able to gain an audience with Gullveig since they are the first visitors from Midgard to grace her court. Just before their meeting, Tony finally manages to place his sense of unease and realises that he has the wrong Loki. However, Loptr threatens him with violence against Loki, and then they're in Gullveig's throne room with no time for Tony to think up a plan. Besides, Tony prizes his husband significantly more than he cares about space politics.

Gullveig's guards immediately see through Loptr's disguise as Loki and Malekith's disguise as a light elf. This doesn't really matter, as Loptr's only intention was to make it inside the palace, and while Tony has been sitting with his clone, he himself has actually been finding and stealing the Heart. He takes Tony and Malekith and makes a bold getaway back to Jotunheim.

Meanwhile, back on Jotunheim, the tribe leader that Loptr was going to marry is arriving in Loptr's town. Her name is Angrboda of Ironwood, and Loki idly notes that he dated someone with the same name way back when. She's huge and terrifying, a powerful leader, and her and Loptr have history fighting with and against each other.

Loki and Tony have no real stake in the upcoming Vanir-Jotnar fight. It gets messy, with several Jotnar attempting to kill Einmyria, Gullveig and Loptr having a showdown, and Tony and Loki being dragged into it to protect civilians. Seeing as he's betrayed them yet again, they attempt to kick Malekith's ass, but he gets away before they can. With the Heart, Loptr is tough enough to push Gullveig back, and she retreats with her guard temporarily to organise a stronger attack.

Now that the Heart is in his grasp, Loki and Tony can see that Jotunheim is revitalising. Animals and other unidentified life forms start growing visibly, and world is waking up.

Here we reach the point where I stopped keeping detailed notes of where the plot was going. I was storing it all in my head, but then, it's been four years. A quick search of my computer is also not revealing any plot documents. Never fear, dear reader, because I'm pretty sure I know where this was going.

Loki and Tony come to the realisation that they are witnessing the first stages of Loptr's grand plan to restore the glory of the Jotun empire. They can't go to Gullveig for help because Tony just helped Loptr steal something from her. Since they're in the Nine Realms and not in the regular universe, they also don't know where else to turn. The option that presents itself is actually visiting the Norns to find out more about the whole situation and what they can do to change things.

They flee Jotunheim for Vanaheim so they can hunt down the Norns. This requires them to learn about exactly how the World Tree actually works, in order to comprehend the space the Norns occupy. The Nine Realms are not part of the regular universe; Midgard is the point that connects these two universes. Nornheim was once a fragment of Asgard that slipped into the ether of Yggdrasil after the Jotnar destroyed Asgard. The pair of them must begin at Nastrond, at the base, and climb up into the realms between realms in order to find themselves in Nornheim.

Nornheim is a tiny piece of reality in a magical slipstream. The three Norns reside there, keeping a hold of the threads of the Nine Realms, watching how this cycle of Ragnarok will play out. Because of the changes they made this time around, this is one of the few infinite cycles where they can't accurately predict what will happen.

The three of them are delighted to see Loki, balanced by Tony, a hero, capable of great feats. It means their plan to stabilise the universe this time around is working. They can see that Loki is willing to directly fight Loptr, and so give him the information necessary to keep Loptr in check, if not defeat him outright. They tell him about his past self, basically informing him of the events of the MCU. They are impressed that he has invented his own variation on the Golden Apple; the new, stabilised version of Extremis is capable of prolonging his life and physical capacities so they are on par with other residents of the Nine Realms. All the pieces are in place for Loki to assume his position as counterbalance.

The time has come for Loki to have his moment of doubt. He does some soul-searching, wondering why a random man from Midgard is so involved in all of this, and how unfair it seems to have such a grand destiny laid out for him. The whole time he was there, the Norns barely mentioned Tony, but he is the light of Loki's life, and he doesn't want to imagine stretching out into an infinite future without his husband by his side. This whole epic fanfiction has been about the two learning to work together, and he's now hearing he has a long life to embrace alone?

Loki decides that he will accept his destiny that the Norns have shaped out for him. With one correction. He isn't entirely sure he can fight Loptr on his own, as his fight earlier showed. He's going to embrace his future working together with Tony. The two of them will use Extremis and their super-suits in order to defeat Loptr together.

They decide that they will not be taking Gullveig's side after all the awful things she has done to Jotunheim and other realms to keep her power, and instead decide to create a third side that directly opposes the spread of Jotunheim without agreeing with the imperialism of the Vanir. Now that they have the Heart, Jotunheim could rebuild themselves into a great society onto their own planet, but it's the determination of their leaders that is pushing the Jotnar into conquest.

The pair return to Jotunheim so they can fight Loptr. With Angrboda and the Heart, it's an almost impossible fight, but our side eventually pulls through. Their goal is to take back the Heart, and they succeed, although both suffer painful injuries. Importantly, they have showed that they can a match for Loptr in a no-hold-barred fight, and Loki vows to oppose him where possible.

When Gullveig returns to fight again, Loki and Tony give her the Heart, and she leaves without fighting anyone. As Loptr probably would have lost that one, he should be grateful, but he is relentless bitter towards Loki and Tony and is already coming up with another thousand ways to escape this planet and take his rightful place as the ruler of the Nine Realms.

Malekith flees off-planet as soon as he gets the chance. Loki and Tony know they will see him again as part of this battle of fates.

The next time Loptr comes up with a plan, Eisa betrays him. She flees Jotunheim to head home to her family in Muspelheim, but without Loptr to protect Einmyria, she is worried about her younger sister. Her reason for fleeing was that she didn't want her father to finally realise how useful Einmyria's powers would be to his plans and start exploiting her. She gives Einmyria to Tony and Loki until she can guarantee her safety, and the pair return to Earth with a Jotun child to protect.

Between Tony, Eisa, Einmyria, Gullveig, and his own unique abilities, Loki has a thousand tools at his disposal to hold back the induction of Ragnarok. He's going to need all of them. He has trouble integrating his life on Earth with his need to get ready for whatever Loptr tries next, but he does his best. The Norns and their plan to hold back Ragnarok rely on him, after all, and he has to be prepared to meet this challenge where possible.

And with this, many dramatic elements are present for a never-ending battle between a number of immortal powers.

-

And that's where the entirety of the _My Fellow Hedonist_ story was actually going. I did have the plan in mind from near the start of the first part of the series, although it changed form a whole lot in the two years it took me to write everything leading up to it. I didn't reread the entire series before writing this out, just bits and pieces, so apologies for any contradictions.

I did write this series for fun as a kid so I apologise for all the seriously juvenile elements of it. But, hey, I really enjoyed writing it.

To anyone reading this to find out how this series concluded; thank you so much for your support, and my apologies for not doing this until now. I was also planning to write one of these summaries for my other unfinished series, the Supernatural!Avengers AU that I stopped updating five years ago, but I realised that I remember nothing at all of the plot I had planned.

I have no intention of writing any additional fanfiction for the MCU, as I am no longer in that fandom and I mostly write original works these days anyway. Any promised future fics or parts of series will not be completed.

If anyone has any questions at all about myself or more importantly about any aspect of this series, please shoot, and I will do my best to answer them.


End file.
